Curzan Anne. English Grammar Boot Camp

The Great Courses, 2016. — 155 p.Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar, really? In fact, it’s the integral basis of how we speak and write.As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word. As a foundation for writing, a detailed grounding in grammar and usage will hugely expand your resources for meaningful verbal expression, for navigating the subtleties of the language, and for achieving clarity of communication and stylistic power.In English Grammar Boot Camp, linguist and popular Great Courses professor Anne Curzan of the University of Michigan takes you on an enjoyable exploration of the essential aspects of English grammar. These 24 spirited and accessible lectures offer you a comprehensive core training—a linguistic “boot camp,” by which we mean a thorough immersion in all of the key elements of English grammar and usage, in their most immediate, practical application.Speaking with incisive insight, a Socratic teaching style, and refreshing humor, Professor Curzan leads you sequentially through the workings of the many parts of speech, from nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to the fine points of determiners, intensifiers, prepositions, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, dangling modifiers, and more. In the final part of the course, you’ll combine all of these elements to take a penetrating look at matters of style and clarity, in settings ranging from daily speech to formal, academic, and scientific writing.